FORMER Brookside teen actress Carla Jarrett has not been seen on TV for more than two years.

But tonight (Monday, December 2) she will be the star of an altogether different drama: the re-enactment of the time her mother's car burst into flames in the middle of the lions' enclosure at Knowsley Safari Park.

The ITV show, Journeys From Hell, was shot nearly three years ago in February 2000.

It reconstructed Carla and her mother Diane Cunningham's nightmare Bank Holiday day out in April 1999.

The 9pm programme will show how they faced a stark choice to either wait in the burning vehicle until help arrived, or take their chances with the prowling lions.

Carla, 15, who played Gemma Johnson in the Merseyside soap, watched with terror as their day trip almost turned to disaster when their Ford Mondeo hit problems in the worst possible place.

She said at the time: "The car was filling with smoke and we were in the middle of the lions' den. They were just a few feet away.

"I was really scared in case they ran at us. I just wanted to get out."

In panic, they began beeping the car horn to attract the attention of nearby wardens.

Six ranger cars raced to them with sirens sounding. One pulled alongside and picked them up, while another car rounded up the lions to allow firefighters to tackle the blaze.

Diane, from Tuebrook, said: "We can laugh about it now, but we came very close.

"It's in the past now though and we've been back to the safari park since and we were fine."

She said she thought the programme had been shelved until they were called on Thursday by ITV.

She added: "It was quite a bad experience, but it's forgotten now."

Carla turned her back on showbiz after her character was written out of Brookside in 2000.